In the days just before Sunday night’s Dateline, I was increasingly worried about how this whole complex issue of Andrew Wakefield and the MMR vaccine would be presented. Mostly, I didn’t want this to end like the 2004 IOM Report which seemed to slam the door on the argument over vaccines and autism. I didn’t want Paul Offit to have the last word, claiming all the studies disprove a link and thanks to Dr. Wakefield, unvaccinated kids were dying.

For endless years, the autism community has seen this controversy dismissed and denied out-of-hand by members of the media who couldn’t possibly consider that we might be right. This was different, however. While it did seem more like a war of personalities, with Andrew Wakefield on one side, up against British journalist Brian Deer and Dr. Offit on the other, we were given enough information to make it clear that this question of vaccines and autism will not be going away.

I spoke with Dr. Wakefield briefly following the show to get his opinion on the presentation and he told me that he was very disappointed that Matt Lauer had omitted two critical parts of the story. First of all, during the long interview, Wakefield had shown Lauer the studies that duplicated the findings of the Lancet paper. (John Stone has also compiled this information and posted it: HERE)

Wakefield wanted to make it clear to Lauer that he was not the only scientist saying these things. Incredibly, on Dateline, we were told by Lauer, Offit and in a written comment from the American Academy of Pediatrics, that all the studies done following Wakefield ’s work, showed no link between the MMR and bowel disease or autism.

The only statement Wakefield was able to make in his own defense was when he said, “Now there are many more doctors who are telling the same story and doing the same thing.” However, he was not allowed to explain that statement or offer proof.

Wakefield also objected to Lauer’s premise, namely that he is to blame for the heated autism-vaccine controversy. At the beginning of the show, Lauer announced, “This controversy was first triggered by just one doctor…,” which really made no sense when Wakefield was heard later describing how in 1995, a mother first contacted him about her son’s regressive autism and bowel pain after receiving the MMR vaccine. He told us that following that incident, “I received a multitude of calls telling exactly the same story.”

Lauer seems to have missed the point that Andrew Wakefield didn’t start this controversy, he responded to the concerns of many parents who were telling him about autism and a new bowel disorder that he’d never observed before. It makes no sense for Lauer to imply that if it weren’t for Wakefield ’s study, we wouldn’t be having his debate. Wakefield did the study because the question was being raised.

Last week, I made a list of things that I wanted to see in Lauer’s coverage and one thing I hoped for was the inclusion of comments by Dr. Bernadine Healy or Dr. Peter Fletcher. Fletcher was formerly the Chief Scientific Officer in the UK and he has spoken out about the possibility of damaging side effects from the MMR (HERE).

Healy is the former head of the National Institutes of Health and she has called for more studies to settle the question of a link between autism and vaccines. Healy was included in the Dateline report briefly saying, “All the questions have by no means been answered.” And on the Dateline website, it was possible to hear more of her comments on the link, "Vaccines and autism: An additional perspective." (HERE)

Online, she advised parents to talk with their children’s doctors about their fears concerning vaccines, and if physicians weren’t willing to do that, parents should “get a new pediatrician.” Those words ensure that doctors will continue to face more and more parents frightened that vaccines may harm their children.

Healy also stated, “The nature of medicine is having humility. I don’t think it’s terribly humble to say we have all the answers. Stop. Shut down the research. Don’t ask any questions. Just do what I say. That’s not the way medicine has ever been practiced and that’s not the way medicine advances. I think both in the area of autism and in the area of vaccines, there are many, many questions that need to be answered and they need a broad base of science.”

Her words sounded a lot like Wakefield ’s comments at the end of Dateline. He said, I’m 100 percent sure of nothing. I don’t have an answer for everything. I don’t know whether vaccines cause autism. I know it’s a legitimate question that needs to be asked. I’m not going to walk away from it.

Those riveting words assure parents that Wakefield will continue to look for answers and they equally send the chilling message to health officials that the controversy over vaccine safety will only get worse.

At one point, Lauer asked the question, “What if Dr. Wakefield is right?” That is the unthinkable to many, many health officials. What if through complete oversight failure, a generation of children has been exposed to unsafe vaccines with devastating results? We can pretend the only issue here involves theories of medicine, but in truth for countless people, self-protection is the driving force.

Peter Fletcher said it brilliantly in 2006, 'There are very powerful people in positions of great authority in Britain and elsewhere who have staked their reputations and careers on the safety of MMR and they are willing to do almost anything to protect themselves.’

When Lauer told us that 300,000 children in this country are diagnosed with autism, one in every 150 children has the disorder, he made it clear that when we talk about autism, we’re talking about children with autism. A once-rare disorder is now so common that everyone knows someone with an autistic child and no one can reasonably tell us why. Something is suddenly causing children to be sick. The medical community has no explanation. They can only tell us what they don’t know. The only thing they’re sure of is that the federally mandated vaccine program isn’t at fault.

How many more years will doctors be credible saying that vaccines aren’t the blame when thousands and thousands of parents say their children got sick after being vaccinated? It’s impossible to listen to the parents of the Lancet study children and not be alarmed about what happened to these children. (HERE)

How many more times will experts be allowed to dismiss the issue by saying, studies show no link, when clearly those studies have settled nothing?

At the end of our conversation, I asked Dr. Wakefield if he had any regrets about having agreed to the interview and he responded, “Ask me tomorrow.”

I’m hopeful he’ll feel satisfied that he made the right decision. Viewers watching Dateline heard two well-credentialed experts, Wakefield and Healy, say that the question has not been answered and reasonably call for more research on a health care crisis overwhelming a generation of children. As Wakefield told us, “The reason we’re sitting here, the reason it hasn’t gone away, is because it’s real.”

I'm also confident that this issue will finally be honestly addressed. We can all take heart from Wakefield's words, "The children are not going away. Their parents are not going away. I'm not going away."--Anne Dachel is Media Editor of Age of Autism.

Comments

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I have 8 yr old twins and I have one question, why if my twins had vaccines out of the same vial, and at the same time, does one of my daughters have profound autism and one is a typical(normal)child.
When someone can answer that question I will, start to believe. Do not say it is is different child, these are twin, same genetics and same childhood illnesses, AND
SAME VACCINES AT THE SAME TIME....

Melissa, I think it would be a fair question to ask your midwife if she read the original Wakefield study? If not, then her recollection of Wakesfield's position is perhaps misinformed, thanks to the media and medical community.

Wakefield suggested, based on his understanding of the poor evaluation of MMR prior to licensing, that people would be wise to split the MMR into its individual components as that might be a safer way to vaccinate.

In the larger uninformed public, some of which don't have time to even think...critically or not will go on their merry way after watching Dateline. Ignorance is bliss until your child seems to be different in some disturbing way.

If more physicians were like Wakefield in that they are "100% sure of nothing", we wouldn't have a medical industrial complex rampaging through our society and strip mining our health for every penny of profit.

Several hundred thousand physicians practicing morally and ethically like Wakefield and we might have a system we could trust.

In a letter to President Woodrow Wilson, I think Mr. Higgins plea needs to be resounded to our current president Barak Obama...the letter reads:
"As soon, therefore, as this crushing fact of the great danger of vaccination to human health and life enters the mind and conscience of the mass of people, and is fully grasped by the legislative, the judicial and the executive minds of the country-from whom it has been so long concealed by medical falsehood in high places-this enlightenment will, I firmly believe, result in the permanent abolishment of all compulsory vaccination if not in the penal prohibition of general vaccinations, as being now more dangerous than natural smallpox and to that great fact and to this final prophetic thought, Mr. President, I ask your careful attention in closing this exposure of vaccination horrors and medical mendacities.
Respectfully submitted,
Charles M. Higgins
Dated at 271 Ninth St, Brooklyn, NY, US Constitution Day, September 17, 1919"

Doctor, thank you for what you are doing! Why do pediatricians deny any connection with Autism and the MMR shots? What else being done then if this isn't the cause (connection). Every one needs to come together to put this puzzle together to clearly see the picture. These kids know the picture in there mind but cannot tell us. My daughter is autistic. She has had a blood clot in her femeral atterys 5 hours after being born. (does the hepatitus B shot have thermerisol in it?). Strabismis, sezure disorder, ciliac disease. All of this cost money to find out and all of this for a label with no cure! Autism isn't viewed as a disability! Where is the help here and where will it come from if we don't let doctors like you try to solve the puzzle? Every now and then my daughter will look me in the eyes, what a joy it is and what a joy it would be if that could be done all of the time. I am Blessed! I wouldn't be the person that I am today if it weren't for my daughter that God has given me to take care of. Thanks be to GOD!

The value of these media events does not end with the day thereof : Think of the people who have not had much exposure to this issue and finally they have to start wondering- What is all this about vaccines that never seems to end? Why do I now hear about autism all the time? Why dont I check this out for myself ? Things are really moving in the direction we had hoped for, but it happens slowly, so we lose track of where we were and to where we have reached.

Melissa, I asked my mother what she thought of the Dateline. She did watch it but she never saw my children react to their shots. she has only what I tell her and although she believes me (she could easily believe some one else too!)

She said it was the same old thing, and that they still can't decide if it is the vaccines or not. Just the batting it back and forth.

I took the time to explain to her why they called Offit the baby killer. That upset her a lot, she had no idea!

I explained to her that Brian Deer's boss was the father of the son who runs the saftey of vaccines in Britian (keep it simple).

But the regular population does not have me to explain it to them. It bothers me a lot. I am glad something was said, but was it enough? I guess not!

My son is a patient at Thoughtful House and we have worked with Dr. Krigsman, in addition to Lucas Ramirez and Kelly Barnhill, for over a year. I wish Matt would have contacted us-I would have sent him the results of my son's scope!

Thank you to all at TH who work for the good of our kids. We are NOT going away!

I totally posted this on the wrong story! Although it applied to where I posted it in error. So, here I go again - thank you Anne (and Kim) -

Thank you Anne for this informative post. Although I am happy Lauer sat down with Andy Wakefield and gave him the amount of time on camera that he did, I am very disappointed that he did not include the other research confirming his findings. It's not Dr. Wakefield alone looking at this now. That is a important fact for those outside our community to know.

I also want to address Dateline's unfair reference to Michelle's case and Sp Master Hastings' words that our family was 'misled' by Dr. Krigsman and 'some' of Michelle's doctors. Please let me state that nothing could be further from the truth. Dr. Krigsman's primary concern has always been Michelle's well-being. Everyone knows how medically complicated Michelle is. Before Dr. Krigsman, Michelle's many underlying and coexisting medical problems were not being addressed. I'll state it once again that in 2003 Michelle was in such bad condition, she was dying. Her lab work showed readings similar to a child with AIDS, she had a coagulaopathy secondary to malnutrition. Her GI symptoms had escalated to the point that she had trained herself to not eat. She was clinically anorexic. She was dehydrated, malnoursished, losing her eyesight, and extremely ill. She could not tell us what hurt because she could not communicate pain in any other manner than hitting herself. It was not until Arthur Krigsman stepped into the picture, that Michelle received the medical care she needed to survive. Plain and simple, his care and attention saved her life. Following our trip to NY, where Dr. Krigsman pointed out several other medical problems needing attention, we took Michelle to several pediatric specialists who diagnosed and began treatment for her other medical problems. Michelle is currently under the care of seven pediatric specialists from major university and children's hospitals, in addition to Dr. Krigsman.

Thank you Dr. Wakefield, Dr. Krigsman, Dr. Jepson, Kelly Barnhill and everyone at Thoughtful House for not being afraid to listen to parents, to ask questions and to look for answers for our very sick children.

I have a daughter 28 years old.
When she was going in for her baby shots DPT, MMR she had a horrible reaction. At the time she was crawling, pulling herself up,sitting up on her own. About 2 hours after her DPT & MMR she started screaming and crying. She could not move she was in a state of Paralysis for 5 hours. I called the Doctor and he said why bring her back here all she will do is the same thing, scream and cry. It's from the DPT or MMR and it will wear off. I was then told never to have the combined shots but to break them up. This was 28 years ago. WAKE UP AMERICA, this Doctor is on to something. MY daughter has been messed up ever since with BOWEL problems. Any questions, not from me, I support the new findings.

I was disappointed when I went to see my midwife today. She is anti- flu shot at least and asked if I had seen the NBC special. I told her I had, her impression was that Dr. Wakefield was back peddling from his stance that vaccine's caused autism. I told her that was not my impression and left it alone for now. This is what people outside of our world are hearing from this report and that is not o.k.

I thought that overall the piece was a substantial victory for autism parents and others raising legitimate questions about vaccine safety. Listen, no major network is going to put its entire reputation on the line in this volatile debate by giving a lot of credence to the vaccine questioners -- such an angle could lead to a drop in immunization rates and much finger-pointing at the network by the establishment, not to mention a drop in pharma ad revenue. It could lead to "scandal" (well, the drugmakers would make certain of that).

Frankly, the who-said-what-when-and-why Wakefield controversy is a sideshow that detracts from the vastly more important issue of the lack of studies on how various vaccines and additives like adjuvants, alone or in combination, can affect a developing neuroimmune system.

It's a big win that the Dateline piece at least raised questions, but its hyperfocus on the minutiae of the controversy allowed it to escape having to take a hard look at the elephant in the room.

Folks do become ill from vaccinatons, the flu shot being an example. However it does no good to pin the cause on just one thing. Whether my comment is viewed (I was censored before. It would be best to look at everything that is going on in the child's life, physically, emotionally and environmentally.

I'm going to make a statement that I never thought would come from my mouth or my keyboard..."Paul Offit made me smile." Okay, I know most of you reading this are probably throwing up in your mouth a little right now.

I mean, we "desperate and emotional" parents in the autism community have all heard or said his name at least a few times over the last few years. In the past, my comments regarding Paul Offit have usually been more like Paul Offit ".....that greedy $!$!" or ".....does he actually believe what he is saying?"

However, this time I am sitting here with a huge smile on my face when I think about his role in 'The Dose of Controversy' segment. Not because of his pleasant personality (again...throwing up in my mouth a little)...but because the man is obviously on the verge of a breakdown. Mr. Vaccine who intended to put parents at ease and ensure that the current vaccine schedule was safe came off like a raging lunatic that was going to burst any minute. If you compared the demeanor of Offit and Wakefield, you almost have to remind yourself who was really under fire in this interview. That tells me that we're getting to him and he knows his words are becoming less and less credible by the minute.

Do you thing he would appreciate it if I sent him a nice thank you note?

It happened that I attended a Christening Sunday afternoon and I was surprised when the proud new "grandfather" asked me if I was going to watch NBC Dateline that night. Apparently, he had seen previews of the show and expressed great interest in the "vaccine" controversy....which, until he became a grandfather the first time...3 years ago..he had absolutely NONE. He knew Dr Wakefield by name...imagine that.

(By the way, his first granddaughter 3 yrs old, has a peanut allergy and he has been given strict instructions on how to react and treat the child should she have a reaction while he is baby-sitting her. That's one way to get a new grandfather's attention pretty quickly)

So, I think Matt Lauer did our community a huge favor....fairly or not....he presented "our side" in the court of public opinion.

Until now, "our side" has been relegated to major media types regurgitating the uncertain, dismissive ramblings of "special masters".

In the court of public opinion...the "common sense" of Dr. Wakefield, Dr. Healy, Dr. Krigsman, parents and grandparents will prevail.

After I got over being angry at Matt Lauer and NBC, I became very sad. I am sad because even though we don't know exactly what causes autism in which children, we probably know enough to prevent a fair number of cases going forward. For all my friends and relatives who have had or are getting ready to have a baby, I give them all the same advice. If you need a rhogam shot, confirm that it's mercury-free, don't give any vaccines in the first 2 months, give only one vaccine at a time, do not give any flu shots, don't give tylenol before vaccines and do not use milk-based formula. Some of them are following my advice, some are are not. I plead with them that they cannot undue what's already been done, and what's a few extra doctor visits in the grand scheme of things. Oh, what I would do to turn back time! But it will take a repeated message from many credible sources to change the majority of parents' minds. It's a parents natural instinct to trust their pediatricians. But I'm trying to help one newborn child at a time to avoid the same fate as my young son. Too bad the millions of people watching Dateline could not have gotten the same message.

Hurray for Dr Wakefield!!! I watched that show carefully and I was able to see how calm and determined Dr Wakefield is, I wish that I would have heard of him few years ago. He made so much sense. I always suspected that my daughter became ill due to an MMR vaccination. In 2007 my 21 year old daughter was injected with a booster shot of the MMR, because she was going into child care studies and was going to be around children, and this was a booster that was required in order for her to continue her studies. Within weeks she became extremely ill. She lost weight, she was skeletal, she lost a lot of hair, and she said she felt like she was in a bubble, looking out into the world, and things happened around her and not to her. She had lost all joy in life; our happy bubbly child was now curled up in a ball of pain. We then spent an exhausting year going to doctors who just shook there heads and said, ‘I do not know’. Not one of them wanted to admit to us that this was possibly a result of the MMR shot that she was given. My daughter is a bright young woman who had just graduated from University and she was stuck in a nowhere land, where she was experiencing such pain in her head that she could not think and was having voices talking in hear head and telling her not such good things, My husband and I were afraid for her life, and we keep a constant watch over her. We finally saw a neurologist that was able to give her a steroid shot in the back head and some of the pain stopped and then she received another shot and some more of the pain was relieved. We are now 21/2 years from when she received the MMR booster shot and I would say that she is still not 100%. Much more money needs to be spent researching this drug before they continue to force it on children.

I posted my views on another site...one not as sympathetic to the cause, lets just say...but wanted to share it with you as well...Here goes (with a couple deletions for language.)
---------------->
Oh boo hoo hoo.

NBC actually did a fair and balanced report on a complex medical issue and guess what, the side promoting more vaccines for children and stopping all research into the risks of these vaccines came off looking REALLY bad.

You know it is true.

Quick quiz. Anyone who saw the piece ask yourself which doctor came off as angry, entitled, prickly and feeling that he was being persecuted. That would be Dr. Paul Offit.

Who was called a baby killer, was said to have blood on his hands, admitted that he received millions from selling a vaccine and called for the end of research into the safety of vaccines.

Again, that would be Dr. Paul Offit.

Who came off as reasonable, not easily rattled and more interested in helping children than battling it out with his critics.

That would be Dr. Andrew Wakefield.

And who was admired by parents and said he did not know if vaccines caused autism, but said there should be more research.

That would be Dr. Andrew Wakefield.

Basically, Wakefield was JFK to Offit's Nixon. As they said about Nixon, would you buy a used car from this man.

And I'm glad a reporter actually included that Offit has made millions from the sale of vaccines and that he has objectivity issues. You never see that fact in any AP, Reuters, USA Today or New York Times stories with Offit in them. They simply quote Offit trashing anyone who dares to question vaccines and they never mention his pretty serious conflict of interest.

A lot of people were hoping that this NBC story would be a big knock-out blow and send the anti-vaxers into a tizzy. Actually, it looks like the other way around.

One last thing to the fans of this blog. Please keep bashing celebrities like Jenny McCarthy and making fun of autistic parents and their children. And Doctors keep telling anyone you disagrees with you to F-off.

But, once and for all, please STOP the straw man argument that there are limited funds for research and that autism-vaccines studies are taking up too much time and valuable resources.

Last spring, the CDC actually did a study on...wait for it...the fact that pets actually trip their owners.

Below is the Wall Street Journal link. That says a lot about the priorities of the CDC.

To add on to my previous comment. I was interested in the fact that they brought up the number of children diagnosed with Autism had increased even though they were either not vaccinated or had received an untained (no thimerosol) vaccination.
My personal theory is that these children are from parents who received tainted vaccinations when they were young.
Conspiracy theory at its best, but has no one thought of that one.
Unless you are detoxed, you will carry the mercury around with you pretty much forever, especially in high doses.

Check out this site.http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/08/06/Proof-That-Thimerosal-Induces-AutismLike-Neurotoxicity.aspx
I checked with my pediatrician about giving my 15 year old Asperger son the flu vaccine this year. I asked specifically if thimerosol is in the flu vaccine and was told, YES it is. I told the nurse that I did not then want my son getting the flu vaccine if it had it in it because of his aspergers syndrome.
And I told her that she should tell the doctor to tell parents that it has it in it so children who are genetically pre-disposed for autism should not have the vaccine.
And my opinion on Matt (the lyer) Lauer is VERY LOW!

Read this in a blog which spells out why we are here...the only one point I don't agree with is vaccines have worth, as follows:

All you have to do is look at the current financial crisis in the country to see how our system really functions. If the SEC is dysfunctional because of conflict of interest, what makes you think that the FDA isn't? Sen. Bill Bradley spoke about all of the high powered lobbyists who came before his committee to lobby for the banking community and how the room was practically empty when the committee was reviewing funding for low income communities. What makes you think the insurance and pharmaceutical companies are any different? Did you see the AIG bailout? Where is the responsibility for these crises? When you can afford to pay, you get your way. If you make vaccinations required, do you have any idea of how much money that generates for the company, the shareholders, the politicians, the required doctors visits? So who has an interest in stopping it? Problems would be settled out of court, quietly, by the very few who would have any hope of standing up against it. The recent ruling against the FDA by Moms Against Mercury and DAMS was a perfect example. Just settle it out of court and agree to a warning label saying patients should discuss with their doctors. Discuss what? That they settled out of court and none of us has seen the evidence? How many of you are underwater with bad mortgages? How did that happen? Fannie Mae is supposed to be regulated, right? I grew up far from the power centers of NYC and Washington and I believed what I was told, as do most doctors. There is no doubt that vaccines are good on the whole, but as soon as you start to look deeper, you find that they have also become a massive money making venture for too many people. We could have stopped the oil dependency issue in the seventies (anyone remember alternative fuels and electric cars?). Do you know why we didn't? Lobbyists for the oil companies. Watch the CBS News interview with Dr. Bernadine Healy (the former head of the NIH), if you don't believe that a lot of high level people are concerned about vaccines. If you have any friends and relatives who have ever worked in law departments of big businesses they could probably tell you that what corporations are doing is CYA. No one is willing to be a whistleblower because the retaliations is too great, the power is too great. Remember that when your holding your six pound newborn. They aren't getting six figures to help you out. You must be your own advocate. Read about these vaccines and be wise. We all don't need so many so soon.

I usually smell a rat when mainstream media appears to be smearing somebody. So I usually sidle over to my PC during the show and do my own research. In this case, within a few minutes I found out that supposed muckraker Brian Deer (the reporter-critic in the show) has strong connections to the vaccine manufacturer. And that Lancet is caught up in that connection as well. Look it up for yourselves. Matt Lauer does selective background checks, doesn't he? Caught 'em again.

I suspected that Lauer did not go by the recommended schedule with his young children's vaccines. Donald Trump spoke openly about giving his youngest son one vaccine at a time and spacing them widely. Remember Tony Blair refused to answer when asked if his youngest got the MMR. I'm convinced that many very wealthy and influential people do not vaccinate their kids the way we peasants are told to do it. Most of them keep their mouths shut about it, unlike Trump.

Makes you wonder how Rupert Murdoch's two preschool daughters were vaccinated, if at all. Hypocrites.

For too long, the debate in the U.S. has hinged on the issue of thimerosal. In Britain, it's over the MMR. Reporters love to tell us that the mercury has been removed, the rate continues to go up, it's proof that there is no link.

The Dateline story clearly brings the MMR connection to this country. This is a whole new headache for the CDC.

When we hinge autism on one cause or appear to be doing that, we throw credibility out the window. Of course MMR is not the only things that cause autism. We all know this. But for some, it is the catalyst, the initiator of the final path of destruction. I believe those same kids are also fighting undetected stealth infections like lyme and mycoplasma, and of which, can cuase same, or equal damage, because they are in utero viruses and bacterias that can change the networks/architecture in the brain forever. This is also the same of toxins, in which of recent they found hundreds of them swimming in the placenta before birth. Many of us don't take tests to measure that, but I am sure, because our kids are not good detoxers, they are soups of brews. I am sure this also changes cell mediated immunity. I am also sure that vaccine fevers handled by antipyretics (because MMR of all the vaccines invokes fevers), would also damage the child. (www.rollingdigital.com/autism ). Perhaps we have to start off slow here...that is change the ACIP recommendations that tylenols are unsafe to use during a vaccine fever...that if the child has ANY INFECTIONS or is ill at time of vaccinations, they are not to be vaccinated. That if mother suspects delays in speech or motor skills or the child has hypotonia or a large head, they are not to be vaccinated. That if, mother has autoimmune conditions, known and unbeknownst to her, no vaccines. That there is a biological marker for vaccine damage such as cord blood Hyper IgE (see www.voicesofsafety.com ), and or new markers such as low NK cells, Low B and T Cells, or Cytokine storms indicating the child is already fighting something? Perhaps all childrenh with mutations of MTHFR and Homocystein or Low Cholesterol, another one. How about testing for Lyme (www.igenex.com ), in both mother and child before they vaccinate? How about not vaccinating preemies, or someone who had a difficult birth, or was immediately cord clamped and asphyxiated? (www.cordclamp.com ). How about someone with low VIT D and other essential vitamins and minerals? How about holding off all vaccines until the child has a mature blood brain barrier and competent immune system, or how about opting out all together because you see several of these things. The point being, does a pediatrician go through these lists of concerns, and does he give it credence? No, because he doesn't read medical journals like I have on this subject, and he doesn't care, because he figure the one size fits all should be good enough, and if you don't fit in that round hole, your child is an acceptible loss.

I rather thing, the last option is best, for everyone concerned, no vaccine is safe until proven safe otherwise (yeah right). But that is just my opinion.

I find it hypocritical that they say we are emotional blame shifter mothers, when in fact, we are the most highly educated and informed about the correlations between vaccines and autism. I don't think we blatently worship at the alters of Dr W, but I do think after we study his information, and ours, we come to certain truthful conclusions...that some childre are unable to handle this schedule, and some can (but barely). This is what should have been said in this program, but now we are made out as hysterical make up stories about our children.

I also believe the confluence of all our toxins are combining with these vaccines, and that makes for genetically susceptible children as targets for their sick pleasure, and that is, to cram down as many toxins and viruses as they can to "see what happens". All with an archaic belief system that innoculations grant immunity, WRONG. We get true immunity by HAVING THESE DISEASES, caring for them properly, and coming out the other end with higher jumps in IQ, detox of toxins, and life long immunity, without autoimmunity.

IMHO, your average parent - as yet untouched by this madness (at least as far as they know)- would come away from it with
a "see, there's nothing to worry about" attitude. "Some parents are just unlucky and/or desperate. Now let me get those shots so I can easily slide my child into day care or school."

The deleterious effect of PR masquerading as "journalism" reaches far & wide. Never underestimate the power of sponsors and the almighty buck. Corporate entities know where their bread is buttered.

First off, Lauer only had 1 hour to address a lot of information. He tried to make it fairly balanced, and did an OK job considering the time he had. I'm positive there is much more information that he could have put in there, but he was pressed for time. For me, Lauer gets points for using the title of the report to thumb his nose at Sneerderman's vapid and rabid cries of "There is no controversy..THERE IS NO CONTROVERSY!!!!" That makes him alright in my book.

I have a feeling, especially from watching the end of the report, that Matt was just dipping his toe in ("That's all....for now"). I wonder if he realized just how deep the rabbit hole goes and was testing the waters to see people's reactions? Regardless, this was a victory for us. People are wondering now. People are curious. People are becoming aware. That is far better than being ignored.

Additionally, Wakefield, Healy, and Krigsman came off as calm and rational scientists who are being unfairly persecuted for their beliefs. These doctors just want to help children with autism, but the established Medical Sacellum doesn't want that to happen. The vaccine defenders came accross as angry, bitter, and confrontational. I have a feeling that people new to this debate will wonder if there is some validity to Wakefield's findings. Again, I think that is a victory.

Another victory, and one I think needs to be brought up, is tht Lauer very clearly asked Deer, "In your OPINION." The Oraccolytes are accepting Deer's word at face value without even looking at all of the evidence or facts. In Deer's OPINION, Dr. Wakefield faked his results. However, we all know that Deer is tainted by a major conflict of interest. But the Oraccolytes continue to believe him.

Don't they accuse us of believing things at face value without looking at all the evidence? The hypocrisy is delicious, is it not? Another victory.

Could this report have been better? Absolutely. But I think it gives us more credibility that it didn't just present one side of the argument, that it showed what both sides were saying. Let the people judge for themselves. And seeing the doctors on both sides and how they were acting, I have a feeling that more people will lean toward a possible connection.